Children's Centres Reorganisation Consultation

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Overview

The Council would like to hear your views on proposed changes and improvements to our early learning provision at our Children’s Centres. The proposals build on the Council’s recently agreed THRIVE Wandsworth Strategy.

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The THRIVE Strategy aims to ensure children are given a great start and focuses on the whole family to prevent rather than react to problems.

For example, our recently re-commissioned Health Visiting Service aims to ensure all families benefit from this early support, including extra provision for new parents with postal-natal depression and when families are facing difficult circumstances.

Whilst we are committed to driving THRIVE forward, we are also mindful that to achieve the aspirations of the strategy we will need to do some things differently. Some of the ways in which we offer services will need to change.

The first few years of a child’s life and development are critical, and we know some five-year olds already have better outcomes than others by the time they start school. We are committed to ensuring we address such inequalities so that families have the information, tools and support to enable them to thrive. We are also committed to ensuring there are high quality services and interventions at the right time and place so all families in Wandsworth maximise their potential.

Early learning is also a critical part of children’s development; however, in Wandsworth we know that many children who are eligible for a free early learning place (15 hours a week) are not taking it up. There is a similar pattern for children age 3 and 4 where all are entitled, but not all are accessing their free 15 hours.

Proposed changes to services

In order to focus on working with whole families and preventing problems while building strength and resilience, we will need to make changes to our services. Our proposals are outlined below:

Increasing access to free early learning places for 2-year olds through 'stay, play and learn' – feedback from our parents, carers and staff indicates that our parents don’t always feel comfortable leaving their 2-year olds in the care of someone who is not a relative. In response, we are proposing to offer parents and carers access to 15 hours of learning for their 2-year old but to stay with them. We want this to be available at all our Children’s Centres and THRIVE HUB as they develop.

Changing how three of our Children’s Centres operate by developing them into Thrive Hubs – these hubs will be the focal points for early learning in the borough with a broader range of services and covering a wider geographical catchment area than our existing children centres. In order to facilitate these changes, some existing services will be offered less frequently.

Further detail of the proposals for each hub/centre are detailed below:

Improvement to Yvonne Carr Children’s Centre and creation of a Thrive Wandsworth Hub

We want the Yvonne Carr Centre to become the borough’s first THRIVE Wandsworth Hub. As well as continuing to offer children’s centre services it will also offer 2-year old nursery places and offer support to other parts of Battersea including York Gardens. The THRIVE Hub will provide a wider range of services for the whole family to meet the needs of a wider age range of children.

A second THRIVE Wandsworth Hub at York Gardens

A brand new community facility will be provided on this site by 2023 as part of the Winstanley/York Road regeneration programme. There will be improved facilities and a broader range of services of a higher quality than are currently available at York Gardens.

The new community facility will include a children’s library, nursery, all age library, leisure facilities, clinical space for delivering health services and a new green space (about the size of two football pitches) for outdoor play.

Located on York Road close to Clapham Junction, it would be a borough-wide facility, offering provision for children of all ages, adolescents and families. Once completed this will be the second THRIVE Hub.

Interim changes to the existing York Gardens Children’s Centre

In the short-term, we plan to integrate the nursery and children’s centre that share the same building at York Gardens. This will allow an increase in the number of free 2-year old nursery places, alongside health clinics and family support. This means that other activities, such as universal stay and play, will not be provided at the York Gardens site.

Merging the Franciscan and Hillbrook Children’s Centres

Franciscan and Hillbrook Children’s Centres are geographically located close together. Under these proposals, Hillbrook will continue to offer a full range of children’s centre services and will be provided with some extra resources. The Franciscan site will be used to support early education in the area by providing free 2-year old places to those who are eligible, alongside family support including Health Visitor clinics. This means that other activities will not be provided at the Franciscan site.

Have your say

As we develop our proposals and the proposed changes to our services, we would like your feedback on:

How you use our Children’s Centres, how they help you and your children get ready for school, and your ideas on what could be improved to help ensure all children in Wandsworth have a good outcome by the age of 5

The activities that help you the most, as some activities at our Children’s Centres will have to stop

We would like to know how this might affect you if you are a user of these centres

You can access the online survey below, but if you would like a paper copy, or a paper copy in your own language or with larger text, please contact us at consult@wandsworth.gov.uk